Lip Sync with Masked Groups?

[sillyanimate]

Is there a way to just masked groups for lip sync? I like the interpolate switch layers option.
But when I do it, there is no interpolation...

Any ideas or suggestions?

[jezjones29]

The switch layer can be inside a group that has masking.
But the switch layer can't have groups inside.
The switch layers must all have the same amount of points and only interpolate from moved points (not layer transformations).

[sillyanimate]

I wish interpolation works with groups in switch layers
I think i could make all the parts in a mouth its own switch layers and put in a switch layer and put that would too complex and probably just waste time

[Greenlaw]

A while back i thought I wanted that too. I had set up a bunch of mouth shapes in a Switch Layer and found that, for some shapes, I needed to create Group Layers with masks. That approach worked fine except, as you discovered, Groups will break the Switch Layer's ability to interpolate between shapes. I agree that it would be nice to be able to somehow keep the ability to interpolate between Switch Layer drawings even when they're inside individual Groups.

That said, in actual practice, I've found that relying on the Switch Layer interpolation for smooth mouth animation does not necessarily look good. To me, it can look kinda mushy and unnatural. Even allowing the shapes to just pop from shape to shape can be preferable to the mushiness achieved by procedural interpolation. But I imagine you're aiming for something more natural looking than 'Saturday Morning' standards.

Recently, I learned some neat lip sync tricks from the other animators I work with. To start off, I'm using straight Switch Layer animation, going from shape to shape without interpolation, but then I am adding transformations on top of the mouth shapes during certain holds. For example, stretching an 'o' shape vertically while it's being held, or widening the mouth during hard 'g' and 'k' sounds. This can be done by simply transforming the mouth Switch Layer itself, or, if the Switch Layer itself needs to be masked, then transforming the Mask Group the Switch Layer is inside of. (Be sure the Origin has been centered directly over the mouth before you do this.) If you're really ambitious, you may even want to alter the mouth shape artwork layers directly using the magnet tool.

If you're going to do the latter, you can save some work down the road by creating Actions for these 'special' mouth shapes. For example, an angry mouth shape can look very different from the same shape used in normal speech; if you make actions for these 'emotional' variations, you can change the drawings in the Switch Layer without altering the Switch Layer sequence. These special mouth shapes can be created as you need them and saved to the Actions list for re-use in other scenes you may be working on. (If the shapes don't already exist in your scene, you'll have to copy and paste between two open scenes as I don't think the Library lets you add and transfer Actions yet.)

The nice thing about post-transforming Switch Layer animations is that you can get a lively performance from your character without a lot of extra effort. When I was creating my lip sync animations, I was mostly just squashing, stretching or repositioning the Switch Layer after I had finished the basic lip sync animation, and the result was almost FBF looking. The trick is to be conscious of what the character is saying, how they're saying it, and apply the transformations appropriately. Be careful not to over-do this because that can look pretty weird too, like the character is over-pronouncing their syllables and being a bad actor.

Hope this helps.

G.

[sillyanimate]

I got this from an abode flash tutorial
Though can be apply in any animation software

"if your mouth has limited number of positions, you can utilize deformations and scales to give them a little bit more movement"
"also don't try to lip-synch every single frame"
"hell don't even do a hundred percent into this either, mix it up,
do mouth movements where they're necessary not were arbitrary standards tell you to put them"
"this is both looks better and is less work"

Yeah I know the previous guy mention the same thing...

[Greenlaw]

More concisely put but, yes, exactly.